Penn State President Eric Barron announced today that the university’s College of Engineering had been hit by what he called “two highly sophisticated cyberattacks.”
Penn State Newswire reports that Mandiant, a cybersecurity firm hired by Penn State says one of two attacks originated in China, using advanced malware.
The FBI alerted Penn State to the attacks on November 1, 2014. At that time, Barron says, the university administration began working with cybersecurity experts to identify the source and nature of the attack, and to take appropriate action.
The announcement was delayed until today to keep the attackers in the dark about Penn State's response. Barron said, “it was important that the attackers remained unaware of our efforts to investigate and prepare for a full-scale remediation.”
Barron called the attack “an incredibly serious situation” and says the university is “devoting all necessary resources to help the college (of Engineering) to recover as quickly as possible” and to “harden Penn State’s networks against this constantly evolving threat.”
Staff, faculty and students in the College of Engineering will need to take certain steps, such as changing passwords. Form more information, they are being asked to visit http://SecurePennState.psu.edu/.
For more on this story, visit: http://news.psu.edu/story/357656/2015/05/15/administration/college-engineering-network-disabled-response-sophisticated
